Removing the urgency from Climate Emergency
Dear Tanya Plibersek
I am disappointed that this week you failed to deliver the sort of action and change that is crucial in this climate emergency. The watered-down non-committal bull that you delivered today makes a mockery of all the scientific evidence that urges an immediate and drastic response to climate change. And I think you know this, but your desperation for the top job clouds your ability to put aside politics and industry greed in the face of major environmental catastrophe. Your lack of testicular fortitude and climate toxic legacy will come back to bite you.
– Frits Harmsen, Tinderbox
Salmon Farming Executives fighting for their jobs
Factory fish ‘farming’ is not logical.
Sue Grau is the chief executive of Salmon Tasmania and there is so much wrong with the information in her article ‘Salmon Farming Has Essential Role To Play In A Sustainable Food Supply’ (The Mercury 3 December 2023) that I can only conclude this is an industry in deep trouble and she is fighting for her job.
I’m one of the activists whom she derides. I have no skin in the game except for concern for our local environment, our world environment, an awful feeling in my guts when I found out about the unconscionable cruelty embedded in the industry, and the appalling fact that when I die sometime within the next 30 years, I will be leaving the natural world in a worse condition than what it was when I was born.
Like Sue Grau, I try to follow the best science available. I know that’s not easy because we can all pick and choose what fits the narrative we have chosen to follow. Also, there are new technologies developing that complicate the issue. Some things are blatantly logical though. Just as solar and wind power must logically continue to usurp fossil fuels, so too there are three very logical arguments that will always supplant factory farms such as salmon farms.
Number one is the example of millions of vegans and vegetarian plant food advocates proving that we don’t actually need all that fish flesh protein or other animal derived products to live very long happy healthy lives.
Number two is that fish farms are part of a highly-industrialised global system of food reduction aimed at making profit. They call it food production, but it is not. It is food reduction into a form that we have been culturally and otherwise purposefully indoctrinated into believing that we need.
And here’s the kicker. Number three is the new technologies that must logically supplant all factory farms because they all have a fractional input of energy, calories, and proteins in comparison. In other words, on cost alone they will eventually supersede salmon ‘farming’. Here’s some examples first of all from the book Toxic Chapter 8 by Richard Flanagan.
“In the USA, Asia and Europe, companies are rushing to perfect salmon grown in labs from fish stem cells, similar to clean, lab-grown cellular meat. As these companies scale up and their costs come down, such protein can be expected to disrupt the market,
as cellular meat already has. In the USA, San Francisco’s Wildtype is already producing edible, cell-based salmon, and is now working on manufacturing it at a commercially-feasible price. In Europe, Danish company Revo has developed technology that uses plant proteins to 3D-print alternative, vegan salmon products, which Revo plans to start selling in mid-2021. All these technologies
claim much lower carbon footprints than traditional salmon farming.”
Here’s just a little pot-pourri of other players in the alternative protein field that relate directly to ‘seafood’. The Israeli based company Plantish makes a fully structured, boneless ‘salmon’ fillet with the same nutritional value as conventional salmon, but it is free of mercury, antibiotics, hormones, microplastics, and toxins. Legendary Vish is an Austrian startup using 3D bioprinting with plant-based ingredients to create a ‘salmon’ fillet. SimpliiGood focuses on spirulina and uses just that one ingredient with algae to create a smoked ‘salmon’ product. Aqua Cultured Foods have developed a whole-muscle cut ‘seafood’ analogue using microbial fermentation. Others using cellular technology include Shiok Meats and BlueNalu. Then there is Jack & Bry creating a ‘fish fillet’ using jackfruit as a primary ingredient.
I suspect there are a lot more, but I don’t know of any in Tasmania – yet. Magic Valley in Melbourne is getting close, but they’re not
focused on marine animal replication. For jobs, for GDP, for our environment, and for our grandkids’ future, I wonder when our government will start backing this technology and help us regain the idea that Tasmania can be clean and green. In the meantime, I wish Sue Grau well, but I’d suggest she quickly get into a more ethical and sustainable role.
– Ivan Davis, Claremont
Suing Guy Barnett and the state government for defamation
Guy Barnett and the Liberal party pushed through new protest laws this year claiming that peaceful activists threaten workers and endanger their lives. This is defamation. I have been involved in non-violent direct action for over a decade and have never seen a worker threatened, assaulted or intimidated by protesters. There have been no charges against protesters nor evidence of threatening behaviour.
I feel persecuted by the liberal government’s claims which have been accepted as fact despite being completely unsubstantiated. The laws were passed based on fear-mongering and false accusations by the people who feel most threatened by climate change. The state liberal government has baselessly defamed all environmentalists who protest peacefully in order to protect the environment during the climate emergency. We should sue for defamation.
City-centre universities are a great idea
Firstly thank you Tasmanian Times for publishing the opinion piece by Michael Rowan about the UTAS move. It’s a great read; clearly he doesn’t have a barrow to push and is sifting through the issues thoughtfully. Well, such a nice change to have someone consider the actual merits and not scream their NIMBY rubbish from a soapbox. He is absolutely correct that the elector poll result in Hobart means very little given that the university catchment is so much wider.
For what it is worth I would like to tell you about my experience studying at a city centre university in Europe. In short, it was great. Many students lived close to the various buildings and that brought a lot of life to the centre of the city. Additionally, there were numerous free public lectures, concerts and events held by the university that were much appreciated by both local residents and city workers. Lastly, I recall that there were numerous city businesses that relied on students for their livelihood; there were nightclubs, tobacconists, phone shops, cafes, mini-markets and so on that would not have been there without the students.
I agree with Mr Rowan that it would likely be a poor outcome for Hobart if the ninnies were to continue demanding that the UTAS plan be reversed. Thank you Rufus Black for your vision and the developing reality of a city university that will bring so much to Hobart, and will be much more accessible from the northern suburbs for my children and grandchildren.
– Angus Fraser, Montrose
Swiftly disappearing habitat
Swift parrots are breeding in the Eastern Tiers, Tasmania, right now. Recent protests by the Bob Brown Foundation in active Forestry Tasmania logging coupes have highlighted the presence of parrots and Forestry Tasmania has since removed machines but only for the current breeding season.
Swift parrots need protection for more than one season. They need habitat protection for all time! End native forest logging NOW. Stop living in the dark ages, Forestry Tasmania. Do the right thing.
– Colette Harmsen, Tinderbox
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